First to the Top: Sir Edmund Hillary's Amazing Everest Adventure

Up on the world's highest mountain, the sky is tinged the black color of space and the air is almost too thin to breathe. How did Ed, a small, shy boy from a tiny New Zealand town, grow up to become the world's most famous mountaineer and adventurer? How did he climb Everest and do many other astonishing things? This exceptional picture book tells Sir Ed's story a story of courage, skill and determination, and an inspiration to anyone who dreams of reaching the top."

Awards

Winner of the HELL Children's Choice Non Fiction Award at the NZ Book Awards for Children & Young Adults 2016

STORYLINES NOTABLE PICTURE BOOK 2015

New Zealand Listener Top 50 Children's Books

Reviews

'How can you possibly sum up the life of Sir Edmund Hillary in a picture book? Taking on a challenge that would have seen lesser writers fail, David Hill, best known for his award-winning children's fiction, captures the essence of the mountaineer's life in a taut yet never simplistic text, while Wellingtonian Phoebe Morris makes a stunning debut as an illustrator. First to the Top introduces Sir Ed to a new generation in a splendid homegrown picture book paying tribute to the heroic mountaineer's remarkable life. From the arresting cover, through cameos of his younger life to haunting, other-worldly mountainscapes, Morris's style gives the old story a cool new edge.' --Ann Packer, New Zealand Listener

'It is easily the best children's book I've read this year.' --Sarah-Jane Barnett, Booksellers NZ Blog

'...a great book for encouraging children to dream big and work hard to achieve their dreams.' --Swings and Roundabouts

Author description

David Hill spent most of his childhood and teenage years in Napier. He studied at Victoria University of Wellington and became a high school teacher, teaching both in New Zealand and the UK. He became a full-time writer in 1982 and is one of this country's most highly regarded authors for children and young people. David's books have been published internationally and his short stories and plays for young people have been broadcast here and overseas. David has won awards for his writing in this country and overseas. He was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2004. Most recently My Brother's War, published by Penguin in 2012, won the Junior Fiction and the Children's Choice Junior Fiction awards in the 2013 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.